Granted Wish
by knittingknots
Summary: Post Manga. Takes place the evening of Kagome's return to the past. Kagome and InuYasha finally have some private time after her return. What does she want? And what wish can InuYasha grant her? New Chapter, Note Rating Change
1. Chapter 1

_I do not own InuYasha or any of the characters created by Rumiko Takahashi_

**Granted Wish**

InuYasha held back the mat door. It was nearly sunset, but there was still enough light for Kagome to find her way to the raised wooden floor and take off her shoes.

"I'll start a fire," InuYasha said. "You'll be able to see it better."

"All right," Kagome replied.

With the skill that comes from long practice, InuYasha soon had a fire burning in the fire pit, which cast a warm light in the small house. It wasn't very big, a little smaller than Kaede's hut, and much smaller than Miroku's. There was a folded pile of bedding in one corner and a couple of storage boxes, and by the fire pit, there were a couple of cooking pots and a low table that held a few dishes.

"How long have you had this place?" Kagome asked, shrugging off her sweater.

"I started building it before the twins were born," InuYasha said. "Some of the men in the village helped me with the framing. I never knew there was so much work involved." He bent over the fire, feeding it some more small pieces of wood. "Old Tameo, the headman - he decided I ought to have a place of my own. He says it's so I can keep an eye out for bandits. I think he just felt sorry for me being around Sango when she was carrying the twins."

She came and sat down beside him, drawing her legs up and resting her head on her knees. "Things have changed."

"Some," he said, tossing in the final pieces of wood. That done he came back and sat down beside her. His arm went around her waist "Some haven't changed at all."

She looked up at him. The gaze her eyes met was warm and intense. She smiled a little, then leaned her head against his shoulder. "Have you?"

"Maybe," he replied.

"Yeah," Kagome said, "Me too." She leaned into his shoulder. "You must have been terribly lonely."

He took a deep breath and stared into the fire. "It was hard. I knew you were safe, and there was so much to do at first - putting the village back to order after what Naraku had done to it, especially Kaede's house, and a bunch of stupid youkai seemed to come out of the woodwork. Me and Miroku got busy in the youkai exterminating business. It wasn't like when my mother died. I wasn't left alone. But still, at night and . . . " his voice, growing thicker, drifted off. "Feh," he finally managed to say. "That doesn't matter. You're here now."

He picked up her hand, and laced his fingers into it.

"I thought about you every day, especially on new moon nights," she said, her voice small and distant. "I don't know if you could say I was lonely as much as empty. I didn't know how tired and exhausted I was until after you left. I missed you so much, but for a long time I was too frightened to try the well. All I could think about was how it was when I was trapped by the Shikon no Tama. And when I finally did try it, it didn't let me through." She sighed.

He pulled her closer to him. "Kagome," he said. "I'm sorry."

She leaned back into his chest. "Don't be sorry, InuYasha. If it hadn't been for you, I wouldn't have made it out of there, or made the wish that destroyed the jewel.

"When I was trapped in the darkness, before you showed up and I thought I was all alone, the jewel showed me a vision, the world it was offering me. Friends and school and family. In the vision I had, which felt so real, I always knew something was missing, but I didn't know what. I was going to school and doing things with my friends, but something wasn't quite right. There was an emptiness in my life that spoiled everything. It wasn't until I was walking by the sacred tree that I knew what was missing - it was you."

Kagome looked up at InuYasha, her eyes growing damp and shimmering in the firelight. "The jewel was trying to trick me into choosing that life, for wishing for it. All the things I thought I wanted once upon a time. It's ironic, really, that after I returned, that was the life I lived - school and friends and family. But it wasn't enough. I had grown too far apart from my friends. My family, they loved me, but really didn't understand what I had been through. There was always this feeling of emptiness, but this time I knew what was missing. I had changed and done too much to really belong. And I was living in a world without InuYasha."

He heard the pain in her voice, and wrapped an arm around her. His other hand gently cupped the side of her face. "Kagome," he murmured.

For a moment, she leaned into his touch, then rested her cheek against his jacket. "This morning, I went to the well house. I realized, I think, that the reason the well wasn't working was because I had been afraid for it to work - afraid of the monsters, afraid maybe, of growing up, of leaving my family. But I knew as I stood there and looked into it, all I could see was a life of gray sadness ahead of me in that world because the one thing I needed to be happy was not there.

"I still I don't know why, but the well must have known I was finally ready. I finished my schooling last week. That world now considers me an adult. Everything I had to do as a child of my family was done. Maybe the magic read my heart and knew now was the time. I looked into the well, and I could see the sky here, and I felt the magic touch me. I talked with Mama, and she gave me her blessing, and then I jumped."

She lifted her head and smiled softly at him. "When I landed, I looked up, and the first thing I saw was you. I knew I was home. This world, not that one, is where I belong."

His eyes gazed down on her with love and awe. InuYasha took a deep breath. Suddenly, his arms were around her pulling her to him and his lips found hers. A hand went up to cup the back of her head. The kiss began, gently and tentatively, and a bit unsure, but built up heat as their mouths opened to the taste of each other.

"I wanted to do that when I pulled you out of the well, but the others came by too soon," he admitted when they broke the kiss.

"Better now," she said. "Nobody will interrupt us."

"No little brother," he said, resting his forehead on hers. "No teasing monk."

Her hand went to his cheek, then slid softly into his silver hair and wrapped around his neck. "Just me and you." Their mouths found each other again. Her lips parted as his kiss deepened, and their tongues slid over and around each other in a gentle, delicious dance, exploring and tasting.

Breaking the kiss, InuYasha tucked Kagome's head under his chin. "When I finally broke out of the jewel and saw you there, floating in that blackness, I knew what really mattered to me. Just you. I just wanted you to be safe and happy. When I saw you fall into your mother's arms, surrounded by the people who loved you, I knew you needed them, and they needed you, and I didn't even fight it when the well took me back. All that mattered to me was that you were safe and had a chance to be happy."

"I'm happy now," Kagome said, lacing her fingers into his. "The first time I've really been happy in a long time."

He looked at her fingers snuggled in his much larger hand. "After I followed you into the Meidou, I found myself trapped in the jewel, fighting the youkai in it. They tried to tell me that you were born to be trapped in it, to fight through all time with Naraku, just like Midoriko was fighting against the youkai there. I told them that there was no way in hell that was true. We had been born to meet each other, to be with each other. While you were on the other side of the well, that was what kept me going, knowing we were meant to be together. I would have waited forever." He smiled at her. "But I'm glad we didn't have to wait any longer than we did."

They sat there, wrapped up together for several minutes, watching the fire. InuYasha's free hand made long, gentle strokes over Kagome's arm and back, almost as if were reassuring himself she was really there.

"I'm afraid," he said, breaking the silence. "I'm afraid that all this is going to turn out to be a dream and when I wake up in the morning, you'll still be on the other side of the well."

"I'm here," she said, looking up into his eyes. They glimmered in the light, dark burnished amber. "I'll only leave if you send me away."

"Never. I'm going to have trouble enough taking you back to Kaede's for the night." His right ear twitched and he smiled a rueful smile.

"Then don't," Kagome said. She ran a fingertip gently over his lips. He caught her hand, and kissed the fingertips."I didn't come back to stay with Kaede." She lifted her other hand and slid it around his neck. "I want to be with you."

His arms swept around her, and his mouth reclaimed hers, this time hungry and unrestrained in his need of her. Somehow, they ended up laying down, InuYasha half on top of her. He lifted himself up on his elbows. "You do know if you stay, everyone in the village will call you InuYasha's wife. The hanyou's wife."

"Good," Kagome said. Her eyes were warm and dark and wanting. "Let them. That's exactly what I want to be."

"That's one wish I can grant," he said, kissing her tenderly. "As long as I get to be Kagome's husband."

"Always," she replied. "It wouldn't work any other way."


	2. Chapter 2

_I do not own InuYasha or any of the characters created by Rumiko Takahashi_

**Granted Wish**

_**Chapter 2**_

A piece of wood popped in the fire pit, cascading sparks. InuYasha's ear flicked at the sound, but neither of the two on the floor nearby looked up. His eyes were like liquid amber, studying her face.

"Wife," he whispered, then let his lips brush across hers. "Kagome wants to be InuYasha's wife," he said in an awed tone.

She nodded, not quite able to speak, and instead lifted up her hand to slide into his silver hair, her breath catching as his mouth moved to trace the contours of her neck. "InuYasha has wanted to be Kagome's husband for so long," he murmured against her warm skin. His mouth found hers again, desperately trying to pour all that she meant to him into that kiss. One arm wrapped under her neck, cradled her head; the other explored the length of her body with long, gentle strokes, eventually finding his way under the bottom hem of her blouse. She arched up to him as his hand explored the soft velvet of her back.

"InuYasha," she murmured, letting her hands brush the neckline of his suikan, then slide around his neck.

Wrapping both arms around her, he lifted her up, kissing her one more time as they stood. "Time for bed," he asked, his voice shaky, his eyes full of loving want.

Kagome nodded, and let herself be untangled from his arms as he walked across the small room, and grabbed the folded bedding, unrolling it not too far from the fire pit.

"You have a futon?" she asked, kneeling down next to where he was working, spreading the cover. Futons were not yet everyday furnishings. And they were expensive. She had spent more than one night sleeping on the floor in her earlier days in InuYasha's time.

"Yeah," he said a little sheepishly. "I haven't used it much. I guess you could say it was a sign of me hoping you would be here to use it. I...I didn't want you to have to sleep on the ground." He blushed a little at the admission.

Her smile lit up her face as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "I'm here," she said. "Thank you."

His eyes glittered in the firelight. "Yeah." Rising to his knees, he pulled her up to him, kissing her deeply. "You really are here."

His hands slid under her blouse, exploring the warm curves only somewhat hidden by the garment. Breaking the kiss, she took a deep breath, then pulled the garment up and over her head, then reached back and unfastened the clasp to her bra. He looked up, and she smiled shyly at him, nodding. His hands shook a little as he reached out and slid the straps down her arms and revealed her breasts with their rosy peaks.

"You are so beautiful," he said. He pulled the garment all the way off, and laid it on top of her blouse.

Smiling gently at InuYasha, Kagome took one of his hands in hers, brought it to her breast and said, "You can touch, you know."

For a moment, he stared at his hand, weighing the soft warmth of her breast in his hand. His thumb brushed across her nipple, and she gasped, closing her eyes for a moment. Suddenly, he crushed her to him, his mouth desperately seeking her lips, then trailing wet kisses down her neck. Her fingers sought the ties to his jacket. He pulled back when he realized what she was doing, and shrugged out of his suikan and kosode.

"I've always wanted to do this," she murmured, running her fingers over his golden skin. "To touch you without needing to bandage you." Her hands slid from the tops of his shoulders, across the muscles of his arms, to trace the outline of his chest. He shivered at the touch, his eyes closing as she explored.

Kissing him on the cheek, Kagome stood up, unfastened the waistband of her skirt, and let it pool to the floor. He looked up into her eyes, warm and loving and wanton as the scent of her desire swirled around him. His hands reached up, tracing the outline of her waist and hips, and slipped into the waistband of her panties, and began to pull them down. She nodded to encourage him, then stepped carefully out of the garment as he wrapped an arm around her to support her as she stepped. The garments moved and added to the pile with the others, he rose up, letting his hands coast along the length of her legs and up to her waist. Her hands shyly went to the bow of his obi and loosened it while he wrapped his arms around her, taking her mouth in a deep, sensuous kiss. Lifting her up, he laid her on the futon, and made quick work of his hakama and fundoshi, then slipped into the bed next to her.

Slowly and gently, they explored each other's bodies through touch and taste, the air filling with the music of gasps and moans and murmured words of love, growing ever closer to that moment when they would be one. Unknown to them, unseen by most eyes, the little house began to glow as youki and reiki began a dance of their own, weaving in and out, reflecting the union going on in their hearts and bodies.

This spiritual fireworks of red and pink light did not go unnoticed, though. Outside of the small house, light cascaded at the sacred tree as a long, shimmering form stepped out of the tree. Not very far away, another light form stepped out of the well. Diaphanous, and hard to spot for even those with spiritual gifts, they joined together and linked hands as they watched the light around the hut gather in intensity.

"You were right," the kami from the well said. The figure, seemingly female, moved a bit closer, and let her sleeve of brilliant blue figured silk brush against the light. A cascade of sparks ensued.

"Well, I did hold him next to me for fifty years," said the figure from the tree, seemingly male, dressed in resplendent russet and green."It gave me a certain perspective."

"I thought they might be too shy around each other," the spirit of the well admitted. "They were always so circumspect around each other before."

"That's the hanyou's sense of honor," he said. "And perhaps it was because she was rather young. But you should have been able to feel his heart. Look how often he came and sat by you."

"She did, too. That's why I agreed, really, when you asked me to open the path." She touched the light emitted from the house again, just briefly. The light around the house shuddered, changed ever so slightly as the red intensified, began to dominate the pink.

"I wouldn't do too much of that if I were you," said the tree spirit. "You don't really want youki to overwhelm reiki; he doesn't want to devour her soul."

"No. But do you want her reiki to overwhelm his youki? He might get purified," she said. "You know how he feels about being human."

"Here, let me," he said, and reaching out a hand, a sound like wind through leaves wrapped around the house. Slowly, the dance of color grew at once calmer and more expanded, settling down into a brilliant rose, perfectly balanced in color, dancing now only in time to their joining.

"You always had a defter hand than I," said the spirit of the well.

"They deserve it," the tree spirit said. "The heroes of that story have earned their happy ending."

"How long will it last?" she asked.

"Oh, quite awhile, I suspect. Never bonded a hanyou and a miko before. But his youki and her reiki will work together, supporting each other. Maybe as long as I'm around." He smiled at her.

"That, my dear one, is a long, long time," she replied, smiling back.

Suddenly the light built into its largest crescendo yet. It was echoed by voices calling out from within the house. The light disappeared.

She sighed. "Well, it's done."

"And I suspect," said the spirit of the tree, "Our part of their story is done as well."

"Perhaps," she said. "At least until her fifteenth birthday."

"Ah, yes, the joy of paradox." He let her hand go.

The night was suddenly calm and silent. With a last coy look at her friend, the spirit of the well dissolved and melted into a streak of light retreating to her place of slumber.

"Live well, children," said the spirit of the tree, and a moment later, he too was gone.

But long into the night there was a gentle murmur in the leaves of the tree, a pleasant sound like a sigh of contentment after a job well done.


End file.
